Pavlokians,
Without a doubt one of the best habits you can implement in your daily life, is cultivating gratitude.
The science is clear. Being “grateful” can have a profound impact on your health, energy, and overall life happiness.
If the pharmaceutical industry could put gratitude in a pill, it would be the best selling vitamin in no time.
But…
I’ll admit. It’s not always easy being grateful.
Things go wrong. Life happens.
You burn your morning toast.
You get in a massive fight with your partner over something silly.
Your recent star hire just put in his 2 weeks.
The list goes on and on.
And yet… the gratitude habit isn’t about ignoring the small frustrations of your day. It’s about consciously choosing to focus on what’s going right. It’s about training your mind to see the good in virtually any situation.
Here are two ways I’ve found to cultivate the gratitude habit.
Write Down Three Things You’re Grateful For Each Night
As psychologist Shawn Achor shares in his viral TED talk,“ The Happy Secret To Better Work”, simply writing down three things you’re grateful for each day goes a long way in helping you see the “bright side” in life.
It can help you perform better at work, improve your relationships, and even give you more energy.
What you write on the list doesn’t really matter. Maybe today you’re grateful for that delicious Chipotle burrito.
The point is building the habit of consistently acknowledging the small things that bring you happiness and joy.
Each morning, or night, right before you go to bed, take out a note card and write the 3 things you’re grateful for that day.
Maybe you hit all the green lights on your way to work.
Maybe you got to read your favorite book for 20 minutes.
Or maybe it’s something as simple as playing ball with your dog.
Each day write 3 things, no matter what.
Use Pavlok 2 To Build Your Gratitude Muscle
Writing down 3 things you’re grateful for each day is a great step in building the gratitude habit. But for many, that just isn’t enough.
If you want to really push that gratitude muscle, you can set reminders throughout the day to take a moment to reflect.
Using your Pavlok 2 you can set your alarm to buzz you every hour. When your Pavlok 2 vibrates, stop what you’re doing and think about one thing that’s going well during your day.
For each vibration, try and come up with something entirely new. If you’re having a bad day, it might be something as simple as “I wasn’t late today”, or it could be “tomorrow is Friday.”
The point is to force yourself to find the good throughout the day, every day.
Overtime, you’ll find that this practice will be one of the best parts of your day, and it will become easier to flex your gratitude muscle on command.
In addition to using Pavlok to remind you to be grateful you can also use Pavlok 2’s shock feature to help reduce those negative thoughts.
Every time you catch yourself thinking something overly negative, give yourself a zap. After, immediately replace your negative thought with something more positive.
“Wow, I did TERRIBLE on my presentation today.”
ZAP…. Reframe
“While it wasn’t my best presentation, I’m proud of the work I did on the design.”
While you will never remove negative thoughts completely (they can serve as a valuable tool) implementing this routine in your daily life can help you become more grateful each and every day.
Wherever you’re reading this, take a moment right now to reflect on something you’re grateful for.
No really. Stop reading and do that now. I promise you’ll feel better.
Now go forth and have a wonderful day.
-Maneesh Sethi
CEO of Pavlok
P.S Pre-order your Pavlok 2 and start building your gratitude habit.